W Bengal leader expresses regret

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The chief minister of India's West Bengal state has admitted "political and administrative failures" over plans to use farm land for industry.

Buddhadev Bhattacharya also apologised for saying his political opponents had been "paid back" in kind in violence in the embattled enclave of Nandigram.

"I should have not spoken like that," he told a news conference in Delhi.

Locals in Nandigram oppose plans for an economic zone. At least 40 people have died in clashes there this year.

Clashes

Mr Battacharya said "we should have taken the people into confidence before the administration moved in" to Nandigram, south-west of Calcutta.

Mr Bhattacharya has been criticised from all sides

Plans for a chemical hub there were dropped after violence earlier in the year.

In March, at least 14 farmers were shot dead during protests against the planned hub.

Police and the state's governing Communist Party of India (Marxist) supporters were blamed for the deaths.

Hundreds of local supporters of the ruling party who were in favour of the planned hub, fled the area and stayed in relief camps.

There was further violence when they moved back into the area in the autumn.

The BBC's Amitabha Bhattasali was one of very few journalists who gained entry into Nandigram posing as a local.

He says armed Marxist supporters launched a full-scale armed assault on opposition strongholds in the first week of November from their bases.

The attack continued until opposition supporters surrendered.

Police stood by or were withdrawn from sensitive areas, while the Marxists set fire to and bombed village after village until the opposition, also armed, fled.